Grand Gestures
by The Guy in 8B
Summary: One-shot set directly after the Season 5 Final. Blaine slipped the ring box into his pocket and walked out of the choir room. As he made his way to his locker, Blaine heard quick footsteps following him. "I know what you're up to, Blaine," Kurt called from behind him in the darkening hallway. "You're planning one of your grand gestures."


This fluff came from a discussion I had with a tumblr friend where I said that I could understand Blaine wanting to propose because he has always been the kinda guy for big gestures. Hope you enjoy.

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And with that, Blaine slipped the ring into his pocket and walked out of the choir room. As he made his way to his locker, Blaine heard quick footsteps following him.

"I know what you're up to," Kurt called from behind him.

Kurt's voice stopped Blaine in his tracks. He turned slowly with his shoulder shrugged and hands held up in surrender. The ring box weighed down his jacket pocket and Blaine was certain the outline on his silhouette would give him away.

"Ah…I kinda thought Burt understood I told him that in confidence." Blaine's stomach sank as he watched surprise quickly flit over Kurt's face.

"He didn't tell me anything. But trust him to be involved after what you guys pulled at Christmas."

"Oh," was all Blaine could manage this time.

"So…_no_, I don't know _exactly _what you're up to, Blaine. But I know you're up to something because I know _you_. And I'd put money on it being another of your grand gestures," Kurt announced with a flourish.

"My whats?"

"Your grand gestures," Kurt said matter-of-factly, raising an eyebrow.

He started to include large hand gestrues as he talked to try and get his point across. "Your – boom box blasting over your head – meet me on the Empire State Building – professing your love on cue cards – schemes that you love to pull. The things you do because you _just_ don't seem to comprehend that you are the _only person_ who does them _outside_ of the chick-flicks.

"Do you know that I told Brittany about how you serenaded me the first time we met and she spent 3 months assuming you were a Disney Prince? When she first saw you she told me she was confused that you weren't a goddamn cartoon."

"I didn't…that was a Warbler's performance," Blaine started to say, but trailed off when Kurt's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Don't even try to say you weren't, Blaine. You didn't take your eyes off me for the entire song. You may not have meant it romantically but you sang it _right to me_ in front of _a room full of people_. And that was it….your first grand gesture. But you didn't stop there."

Blaine felt his brow wrinkling as he tried to work out where Kurt was going with this. He felt he should be apologising but had absolutely no clue what for.

"Then there was Jeremiah. You sang to him in front of _an entire shop_ of people for Valentine's Day. Then, when you finally realised you were interested in me, you bucked all tradition and pretty much demanded to sing a duet with me. For the most important performances of the year! All of the Warblers realised you liked me before I even did!"

"In my defence, nobody considered it news at that point; Wes and David had been taking bets on…"

Kurt ploughed on, ignoring him. Blaine began to suspect that Kurt had been preparing this speech for a while.

"And then when I moved back to McKinley. You _followed _without even telling me. All because you knew how amazing it would feel when you surprised me in the hallway on the first day."

"You said you liked that."

"I _loved_ it, Blaine. I loved it all. It's big and dramatic and so much a part of who you are; you feel everything so deeply that you don't think mere words can convey it. So you orchestrate these amazing, elaborate performances just so we, the regular people, can hope to get a glimpse of what it feels like for you. Knowing you is learning to expect the zag, instead of the zig and it's exhilarating. But it can be so tiring.

"I need you to listen, Blaine, because that's not the end of them."

Kurt paused.

"Then you….When I moved to New York, I got distracted …and you got scared. So instead of talking to me …you did one more grand gesture. You could have come to talk to me. You could have yelled at me. You could have even broken up with me. But you knew that there was one way that would communicate how you felt clearer than anything else."

Kurt took a breath to steady himself and Blaine took one too. He knew what came next and he didn't want to hear the end of the story.

"So you…were…_with_ someone else. And _that_, was heartbreaking …but then you flew up to New York to surprise me and all but _announced_ this to me in a bar_ full of people_ watching."

_"Kurt."_

Blaine couldn't hold it in. He stepped towards Kurt with his hands held out; to beg for forgiveness or to offer support, he wasn't sure which. But Kurt took a quick step back to preserve their distance. Kurt's face was surprisingly passive Blaine realised, holding neither the anger nor sadness that he expected.

"No, Blaine. That isn't what this is about. I just need you to hear what I'm saying."

Kurt looked around, lost for a second and Blaine realised that if he wanted to hear Kurt out he should stop interrupting his train of thought.

"You kind of ruined Katy Perry for me, you know that, right?

"_First_, I couldn't listen to her because the version the Warblers did was so much better than the original. But now, I can't listen because all I can think about how you used it to tell me that we were broken. And I couldn't react, because you were in the middle of a performance. Being in that bar, I felt exposed and suffocated at the same time. All I could think was that I had to hold it together because _every_ set of eyes in that bar were on me.

"Forgiving you for Eli was difficult but, _believe me_, forgiving you for how you told me was alot harder.

"So, I _know_ when you're planning something, I know it from all angles. And I'm here to tell you _…Please …Stop_."

Kurt looked towards him with his eyes wide, daring Blaine to tell him that this wasn't the plan. Blaine nodded, embarrassed.

"Because, if you did, I'm not sure I'd be able to say no. Blaine…I do see my future with you in it...in a kind of forever after capacity. But what we have at the moment, it's fragile and I don't want to fall back to where we were when I came back for Grease.

"We don't survive distance well. I think we both proved that. And we can't guarantee that things will go any differently. I haven't had enough time to grow. I still get caught up in my work and forget to text Rachel about dinner, I still talk too much about myself and forget to ask Finn how he's going when we talk, and I'm still pretty much as broke as I was back then. After this visit I won't be able to make it back to Lima again this year. I don't want to do that again."

"I'm not ready yet. I know I'm not going to feel like this permanently, but I _need_ to feel like this now. I'm just finding my place in New York. It's new and exciting and I just want to throw myself into it all. And that's not something I can do if I'm busy missing you all the time."

Blaine hadn't thought about this. He had been so focussed on the excitement of the proposal that he hadn't even considered how Kurt might be feeling. He felt almost reprimanded.

"This isn't me telling you to cancel your grand plans. Just put them on hold, _please_."

Kurt paused and then cleared his throat. He stepped in, closer to Blaine, and ducked his head to meet Blaine's eyes.

"Because when you get to New York in July I'm going to meet your plane. And I'll have a bouquet of yellow and red roses - yellow for friendship and red for love. And I'm going to wear that bow-tie I bought when we were at that flea market. Not for any specific reason really, but can you imagine how amazingly it will match with the flowers?"

Blaine watched in awe as Kurt's face lit up as he described his plans.

"And then I'll offer to take your bag, because it's not only you who gets to be a gentleman. Then we'll get into a taxi but instead of taking you to the apartment that you'll totally already have found, I'll get the driver to take us back to the loft. Rachel and Santana will be there. And Artie will have come to visit. And Britt will probably just be arriving, it's a 4 hour drive but you know she's going to be making the drive most weekends.

"And the girls are going to make up a massive bowl of garden salad while you, me and Artie go nuts with pizza bases and endless toppings. And we're going to eat it all, sprawled out on the floor after Santana laughingly suggests that we have a picnic.

"And then, I'm going to take you up to the rooftop, accompanied by jeers; the loudest from Santana, of course, and the most encouraging from Britt."

At this, Kurt offered up a wobbly smile and Blaine couldn't help but lean in closer, holding his breath for fear of breaking this moment.

"But we're just going to talk, of course, because we have so much to catch up on. Even though we've talked on Skype it'll still feel like best friends meeting for the first time in a year.

"You can tell I've planned this all because I have a rug and candle hidden behind an air vent tower and you'll smile as you see the candle is completely un-used. This was all for you."

"We'll lie back and pick out constellations. If it's cloudy we'll do the same; we'd be making up the constellations anyway, now we'll just have to make up the patterns as well. And anyway, it won't matter what we say, because all that matters is that our voices are finally melding and curling together as they rise up over the chaos of New York below us."

"But the conversation finally stills as the candle flickers, almost drowned in its own melted wax by now. That's when I'll take you to the edge of the roof and you'll see, carved into the brick, our initials. I'll explain that early last year I watched Moulin Rouge with Santana and Rachel. That, as I watched Christian and Satine sing, I thought about all that song had meant to us; how much that song _still_ meant to me. And then I started to wonder…if it still meant that much to you. And I just _couldn't_. And that was when I realised that I would never fall out of love with you."

The complex emotions flitting across Kurt's face weren't sad but only occasionally bordered on happy. Similarly, Blaine realised that his emotions were so much more than simple love as he watched the boy struggle to find words. Love was there, to be sure, but so was guilt, yearning, embarrassment, sadness and hope; they danced and swirled in his mind's eye, in a bid for dominance.

"So, I'll tell you that, after that movie, I sent Adam home and came up to the roof and carved these letters in the brickwork; they reminded me of what I have with you. In a city that never stops changing, these letters were my only constant. And then I'm going to tell you that, from this day on, I want _us_ to be each other's constant.

"And you'll start to quietly sing Come What May. And I'll laugh because that was I was about to do. But we both know that you do a better Ewan than Nicole so I let it slide and pick up the melody when it's my turn.

"And as the last note fades from our lips, you'll pull me closer and kiss me softly. And it'll be shaky and wet because, well…"

Kurt paused and gestured between them. They were both fighting back tears. Kurt's were more evident as his voice hitched when he reached particular sections of his speech but Blaine could taste the salt of a stray tears already pooling at the creases of his lips.

"Can you imagine how much worse we'll be by candlelight?"

Blaine laughed thickly and Kurt took a deep breath before continuing.

"But it will be perfect. Because it is us, Blaine.

**"**This is the grand gesture _I'm_ planning. It doesn't come as easily for me as it does for you. But I'm planning it. And I think it's important for you to know that."

Blaine reached out a hand in the darkened hallway and found Kurt's elbow. He gently let his thumb caress the inside of Kurt's upper arm. He wanted to pull him forward in to a kiss but he knew that in doing so he would disrupt the possible future to which he was already so desperately attached. So he stayed still and silent and tried not to let his face split into a grin as Kurt continued to hold his gaze.

"It is. Thank you, Kurt."

At this, Kurt blinked, sending an errant tear dancing down the side of his face. "Believe me, Blaine; this was as much for me as for you."

The almost reverential moment was broken as they both grinned and it was like a huge weight had been lifted.

Laughing, Kurt pulled Blaine into a hug. The laughter stilled as they both closed their eyes and soaked up the sensation. Kurt sighed as he dropped his head onto the dip where Blaine's neck met his shoulder. Blaine shivered as he felt Kurt's breath ghost down his neck and readjusted where his hands were fisted at the back of Kurt's jacket to pull the boy even closer.

They pulled apart and Kurt smiled down at Blaine quietly.

"I'll see you later, Blaine."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

Blaine couldn't keep the bounce out of his step as he continued on his way out of the school.

Six months. He could do that.

He would put away the ring box. He would hide it in the back of his bow-tie drawer and try to keep it out of his mind for at least six months. But after that, all bets were off.

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AN: I have absolutely no clue how long it is until he finishes school. I don't understand the US school system and even more I don't trust Ryan Murphy time to relate to the US school system.

I have a chapter fic in the works at the moment. It's about Ryder finally meeting Katie. But it considers the possibility if that situation were to happen in an urban sci-fi setting. Think Buffy verse - it's nuts, but most people don't know it. It's definitely a departure from the show and also AU what with the catfishing being revealed but I think it's still a fun read so I'd love you guys to check it out if it sounds like your kind of thing.


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